Climate Action Project: Protecting Paraguay’s forests and reflecting on our 2025 climate action journey
Deep in Paraguay lies the Gran Chaco, a remarkable forest that helps fight climate change. Explore how protecting this threatened forest is cutting carbon emissions, conserving wildlife, and creating sustainable opportunities for local communities.
Stretching across Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil, the Gran Chaco is South America’s second-largest forested region. Though often overlooked, its diverse landscapes play a vital role in regulating the global climate and supporting rich biodiversity, storing around 13,000 tonnes of carbon per square kilometer, amounting to tens of millions of tonnes of CO₂ across the region.
Despite its importance, the Gran Chaco is disappearing rapidly. Deforestation surged by 78% in 2019, with forest the size of a football field being cleared every two minutes at its peak. The rapid expansion of cattle ranching and industrial soybean farming has driven the destruction of millions of hectares, placing immense pressure on both climate stability and biodiversity.
Turning conservation into climate action
In response to this crisis, the Corazón Verde del Chaco Project was established as a REDD+ initiative designed to halt deforestation, reduce emissions, and encourage responsible land management. Today, the project safeguards approximately 32,000 hectares of forest, with plans to scale protection up to 300,000 hectares, one of the most ambitious conservation efforts in the region.
By keeping forests standing, the project prevents massive amounts of carbon from being released into the atmosphere. At the same time, it preserves habitats critical to the Gran Chaco’s rich wildlife, including more than 3,400 plant species, 500 bird species, and 150 mammal species. The result is a powerful dual benefit: climate mitigation paired with long-term ecological protection.
People at the heart of conservation
The Corazón Verde del Chaco Project places local communities at the centre of its work, ensuring conservation delivers real social and economic value.
Through programmes such as Los Guardianes, the initiative employs forest rangers to monitor and protect the land. These roles provide stable employment, build technical skills, and actively promote inclusion, highlighted by the participation of a female wildlife biologist among the forest guards. By investing in people, the project creates shared ownership of conservation outcomes and strengthens long-term sustainability.
Scaling protection for lasting impact
As global demand grows for credible climate solutions, the Corazón Verde del Chaco Project stands out as a proven model of effective action. By preserving forests that store immense amounts of carbon and support exceptional biodiversity, the project contributes directly to international climate goals.
As the project expands, it helps ensure Paraguay’s forests remain not only vital carbon sinks but thriving ecosystems that support wildlife and local communities, safeguarding one of Earth’s most important natural defences against climate change.
Our climate action impact so far
Since starting our partnership with Ecologi in September 2023, we’ve taken meaningful steps forward in our sustainability journey by supporting reforestation and carbon-reduction projects around the world.
To date, we’ve planted 44,325 trees, prevented 424.92 tonnes of CO2e from entering the atmosphere, and removed a further 27 tonnes of CO2e. We’ve also helped restore 44.44m² of habitat, contributing to local biodiversity and healthier ecosystems.
Reflecting on these achievements reminds us that collective action can create lasting change. While we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished so far, this is just the beginning. Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, we remain committed to strengthening our partnership with Ecologi and continuing to help build a more sustainable future for generations to come.
*All reported data in this blog is dated 7th January 2026
